CHRISTOPHER MASON HAILE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/10/1838 - HFSID 1254

CHRISTOPHER MASON HAILE
The American journalist writes his friend at West Point revealing that he has been granted permission to travel to Cuba. Extremely Rare!
Autograph Letter signed: "C. M. Haile", in black ink, 2p front and verso, 8x10. Baltimore, Maryland, 1838 May 10. Addressed on verso of 2nd page to: "Cadet M.S. Cubertson/ West Point/ New York".To "Dear friend Culbertson". In part: "I am safe and almost sound.= Have been at Washington City, and found every thing straight. = The Secretary of War told me that he had forwarded me a permit to N. Orleans, allowing me to visit Cuba…". Christopher Mason Haile (1814-1849) was a journalist and humorist remembered today for the amusing series of fictional letters he wrote under the pseudonym Pardon Jones. After attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1836 to 1837, Haile decided to move to Louisiana to pursue a career in journalism. Once he arrived he married his friend's sister, Marie Clarisse Hebert, and in 1840 he began publishing the Planters' Gazette, a bilingual (French and English) newspaper. The sixty-seven letters he wrote under the pseudonym Pardon Jones were published in the New Orleans Picayune between 1840 and 1848. In 1846, he began working as a special correspondent for the Picayune reporting on the Mexican War. Multiple vertical and horizontal folds. Toned. Lower left-hand corner of 1st page, but text of letter is still decipherable. Hole from tearing on 2nd page, not affecting contents of letter. Otherwise, fine condition.